Too hot, not playing!

Max and I had a rather forceful difference of opinion today, and I narrowly avoided rope burn as a result.

After my very hot and sticky shift at the yard this morning, I finished with enough time to do a little something with Max. Because it wasn't much time, I decided on lungeing him in the long field in his Dually, just because that kind of exercise takes the least prep time to get him ready, and is also fairly quick for dusting down and settling in when we're done, so less need to rush while we're about it. Rushing with horses is pretty much a non-starter.

"What? Why so fast? Is there danger? Why you so stressy? Shall I be stressed too? Oh, did I knock you over, puny biped?"

It's a big field, has a nice slope for engaging those hinds, and my version of lungeing means I walk quite a long way along with him, so he's on a very big circle.

Max was brilliant for the first ten minutes on the left rein, albeit a bit grumpy and required a bit of chasing to get him moving forward, but it was very hot, so we'll forgive him for that.

Got onto the right rein, where he's always a bit stronger and after a couple of turns he decided, "Sod this for a game of soldiers! I'm off!" and he headed with determination for the beckoning, open gate.

Really pulled the rope through my hands and I felt the sting, but luckily I had enough to play with and my grip hadn't been that tight anyway, so I saved my hands from a nasty burn.

One sharp "How Dare You, Sir! What do you think you're playing at?" was enough to bring Max back to me (OK, with a small buck of protest) and settle him in again.

"For goodness sake, Max! Get on!"

"Too hot. Back to box now!"

He did not get grazing on the way back to his box, but he did get click treats for good work while we were working, and a cooling sponge bath, fresh water, fresh hay, and after a couple of carrot stretches, his manger was filled with cinnamon apple bites to soothe his grump, so he was a happy boy.

Hot work though! He was in a sweat at the end of it and so was I. We hadn't worked that hard, but it really didn't take that much under the midday Hampshire sun.